Current Affairs This Week (06-01-2019)

India: 100% electrification before 2019 Republic DayThe government is likely to achieve its 100 per cent household electrification target in the country ahead of Republic Day as it has already energised 2.39 crore out of the targeted 2.49 crore households under Rs 16,320 crore Saubhagya scheme, an official said.

Japan to Withdraw from the International Whaling CommissionJapan announced its decision to withdraw from the International Whaling Commission on Wednesday, in a bid to resume commercial whaling. This will be the first time in 30 years that Japan will resume commercial hunts, but said it would no longer go to the Antarctic.

A paper sensor that can detect freshness of milkScientists at Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati, have developed a simple paper kit that can test freshness of milk and tell how well it has been pasteurized. Aided with a smart phone app, the kit can help ensure that milk is consumed before it turns too sour.

China’s lunar probe makes landing on the ‘dark side’ of moonChina’s burgeoning space program achieved a lunar milestone by landing a probe on the mysterious and misnamed “dark” side of the moon. It could eventually help scientists learn more about the early days of the solar system and maybe even the birth of the universe’s first stars.

Facts : A third of all cars sold are electric in NorwayOn the mission to stop selling gas-powered vehicles by 2025, Norway is already leading. Over the entire course of 2018, 31.2 percent of all the new cars sold in the country were entirely powered by electricity instead of fossil fuels. That’s the highest percentage worldwide.

CycleGAN: The clever AI that hid information to cheat laterArtificial Intelligence has become so intelligent that it is learning when to hide information which can be used later. Researchers tasked a machine learning agent with transforming aerial images into a map, and they discovered that it was hiding information in order to cheat later!

69,944 babies welcomed in India on New Year’s day:UNICEFAn estimated 3,95, 072 babies were born around the world on New Year’s Day, according to UNICEF. Of those, a quarter were born in South Asia alone. Out of these, 69,944 babies were born in India, i,e 17.7 per cent of total newborns.

Karnataka: 84th Kannada sahitya sammelana in Literature hubThe stage is set for the 84th Akhila Bharata Kannada Sahitya Sammelana, which will begin in Dharwad, the land of literary luminaries and maestros of Hindustani classical music. Dharwad, which played an important role in the State’s unification movement 62 years ago.

UP: Centre approves renaming of Allahabad as PrayagrajThe Union Home Ministry has approved a Uttar Pradesh government proposal to rename Allahabad as Prayagraj. The decision comes days ahead of the Kumbh Mela being organised by the State government in the city.

NASA spacecraft reaches asteroid Bennu, breaks recordNASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft broke a record after successfully entering into orbit around the asteroid Bennu – the smallest cosmic object ever to be orbited by a spacecraft. NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft, 110 million kilometers away, carried out a single, eight-second burn of its thrusters.